Present vehicles designed for persons having full and unrestricted use of all of their limbs consist of a rotary operating steering wheel, a brake pedal and an acceleration pedal. Where individuals have lost full use of one or more limbs, vehicle controller modifications are often made to permit the individual to safely operate a motor vehicle. Various designs and modifications have been developed in recent years to accommodate the inability to normally control one motor vehicle device or another. For example, paraplegics unable to operate the braking and acceleration pedals of a vehicle have been provided with a hand control mounted on or near the steering wheel. The types of devices developed to aid the handicapped driver have included the use of systems sensitive to the acceleration and braking forces of the vehicle as they affect a controlled mass connected to a joystick; a plurality of actuators and interfacing electronics; electric motors; pulleys; belts; gears; and, joystick devices having "feel" to them. Each of these devices have inherent problems which make them undesirable for their intended use. For example, those devices which are purely mechanical are often too complicated and thus unreliable or are not capable of providing sufficient sensitivity or feedback. Others using complicated electronics and servomotors are also complicated as well as being expensive.
A variety of such devices are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,089,560, issued to Priest on May 14, 1963; 4,476,954, issued to Johnson, et al. on Oct. 16, 1984; 2,865,223, issued to Kope on Oct. 8, 1956; 3,022,850, issued to Bidwell, et al. on Feb. 27, 1962; 3,117,649, issued to Parton, et al. on Jan. 14, 1964; 3,095,754, issued to Mayon, et al. on July 2, 1963; 2,565,293, issued to Aydelott, et al. on Aug. 21, 1951; 2,988,928, issued to Dussemier de Fonbrune, et al. on June 20, 1961; 2,929,258, issued to Mackway on Mar. 22, 1960; and, 3,814,199, issued to Jones on June 4, 1974.